Translation

Reflections on the cultural and political complexities of translation in global contemporary artistic practices.

The movement of global populations, and subsequently the task of translation, underlies contemporary culture. Economic and environmental migration, forced political exiles, and the plight of refugees are now superimposed upon the intricacies of ancient and modern diasporas, generations of colonization, and the transportation of slaves. This timely anthology considers translation's ongoing role in cultural navigation, empathy, and understanding disparate experiences. It explores the approaches of artists, poets, and theorists in negotiating increasingly protean identities—from the intrinsic intimacy of language, to translation's embedded structures of knowledge production and interaction, to its limitations of expression, and, ultimately, its importance in a world of multiple perspectives.

Artists surveyed include
Meric Algün Ringborg, Geta Brătescu, Tanya Bruguera, Jesse Darling, Chto Delat, Chohreh Feyzdjou, Susan Hiller, Glenn Ligon, Teresa Margolles, Shirin Neshat, Hélio Oiticica, Pratchaya Phinthong, Kurt Schwitters, Yinka Shonibare, Mladen Stilinović, Erika Tan, Kara Walker, Wu Tsang

Writers include
Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Luis Camnitzer, Jean Fisher, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Sarat Maharaj, Martha Rosler, Bertrand Russell, Simon Sheikh, Gayatri Spivak, Hito Steyerl, Lawrence Venuti

Sophie Williamson is Programme Curator, Exhibitions, at Camden Arts Centre, London. She has written for frieze, Art Monthly, and Aesthetica, and was the first recipient of the Gasworks Curatorial Fellowship in 2016. She completed a research residency at SOMA, Mexico City, through which she built a body of research on cultural translation and molecular curation.